Former Twitter executives are suing Elon Musk and X for $128 million in damages

Former Twitter executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gade and general counsel Sean Edgett, filed a new lawsuit against Elon Musk and X Corp. in federal court, claiming they are owed $128 million in unpaid benefits.

In their complaint, lawyers for the former Twitter executives say that after Musk backed into a deal to buy Twitter, now X Corp., for $44 billion, he retaliated personally against those executives and tried to recover some of its costs by “repeatedly refusing to honor other clear contractual commitments.”

Musk and X Corp. have “crippled employees, landlords, vendors and others” since taking over Twitter, lawyers said, a reference to more than 25 vendor default lawsuits filed against the social media business by companies including software and service providers and a landlord.

“Musk doesn’t pay his bills, believes the rules don’t apply to him, and uses his wealth and power to go after anyone who disagrees with him,” the complaint said.

The complaint also alludes to comments Musk made to his official biographer, Walter Isaacson, that “he will ‘haunt’ each and every one of” Twitter’s executives and directors “until the day they die.” Lawyers for the former Twitter executives argued, “These statements were not the mere utterances of a self-absorbed billionaire surrounded by aides unwilling to confront him with the legal consequences of his own choices. Musk bragged to Isaacson specifically how he planned to deceive Twitter executives.” on their benefits to save himself $200 million.”

The case, Agrawal et al v. Musk et al, was filed in the Northern District of California and follows news that settlement negotiations between X Corp. and former Twitter executives have failed in a related case in Delaware, Woodfield v. Twitter Inc., where $500 million in unpaid benefits of former Twitter managers and engineers is controversial.

Representatives of X Corp. and Elon Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full complaint below: